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U.S. always is strong supporter of Israel

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Friday August 8, 2014 5:00 AM

I’m among the 55 percent of American Jews who support President Barack Obama and who mystify letter writer Philip Miller (“Jewish support of Obama is puzzling,” Sunday). Miller observed, “It makes me wonder how much the Jews here care for their motherland.”

Here's the answer from an ardent supporter of Israel: Our president is not the head of Israel, he’s the chief executive of the United States. As such, he has many pots to stir, not just the Israeli one. No one should expect him to have the same perspective as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and just because the media report some snippets of disagreement between the two doesn’t mean the president is not a strong friend of Israel.

Further, as Miller casts aspersions on the president, it would be appropriate to note that previous presidents also have declined to march in lockstep with Israel: Over Israeli objections, Ronald Reagan sold AWACS surveillance planes to Saudi Arabia, and George H.W. Bush held up loan guarantees because of Israeli settlement construction. Under the rubric of “actions speak louder than words,” I would point out to Miller that on Monday, at the height of the current Israeli incursion into Gaza, Obama promptly signed a just-passed bill providing Israel with $225 million for its Iron Dome anti-missile system. Three days earlier, his administration announced that the Jewish homeland had been re-supplied with a large shipment of general ammunition.

The Israeli prime minister said this past weekend, “I think the United States has been terrific,” to which the president’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, responded, “The nature of our relationship is strong and unchanged.” Despite this or that remark by the governments’ leaders, America is Israel’s strongest friend, and Netanyahu, along with the majority of American Jews, knows it.

Today, Israel, in large part thanks to the support of this country and its current president, remains a strong, free and democratic society. American Jews know that, too.